A Year Ago, I started Today

As my lease comes to an end, today's blog will reflect on the experience it has been.

A year ago, I got my current job offer and I made the move for it. I was only dating Josh for about two months and I debated about staying in Wausau to avoid a long distance relationship (LDR) or just completely avoid the whole drama and not be in. I'm not a LDR hater but I'd be bad at it if I was in one. The whole point of being in a relationship is to be with one, physically. I believe hugs make bad days or hard times (at least) better. If I'm with someone just by title and I never really see them, I can't function. I'd just take the single title and do whatever I want. Ok, that's for a different conversation/blog.

So I got the offer and I accepted it. Then I started looking for apartments. Josh and I went to Georgia for a weekend and on the way back to Madison, we stopped by for our first (and only) showing. It just felt right when I saw it (because of price too :D). The living room had carpets, kitchen was wood floors, decent bathroom size, patio doors, big bedroom closet, nice kitchen with reasonable counter space, and lots of natural sun lights. The dealbreaker was the patio door and first floor! I'm a petite person, so I would like life to be convenient when I need to tranport things; from moving in and out, to taking out the trash, carrying laundry and grocery. I think one mistake that some people do is that they don't think about their everyday activities. Some places only offer street parking, and those suck because it's usually first come first serve (like my sister's apt in college); what made it even worse was that it was odd and even parking too! Or some place have permit parking = fees (also my sister's apt). Anyway, I loved the place, but I didn't get it in time and had to wait for a new one to open in August. I lived with my sister for the month of July until then.

Being with Josh and and having him for this whole experience is quite a mark in my life because I've always been an independent person; I hate feeling like an inconvenience. I usually do all my moving slowly and alone. For instance, I disaaembled my first dining table and 4 chairs from home to college. Then when I moved out of college back to home, I boxed my items. My small car wouldn't have fit 10+ boxes and other items, so I took 2-3 boxes each time I went home.

With this move, Josh helped with everything...I think. I was only hopeful to get my Craigslist sofa because I knew I could rely on him, with the help of my sister and bil. Everytime I found a furniture or item, he would help me with it. He never tells me that it's a bad idea, because that's what people say/do when they don't want to help you. There has never been a time where Josh wouldn't help me (ok, fine, maybe .01), even if we've probably had a stupid debate. And that's what I love about him/me/us; that we are still civil even after we say what we want to. And that's what opened my eyes to wake up that relationships aren't perfect or fairytales. As much as I work for it and want it, it's not true. And love is finding that person that you want to keep working with; which I gave up on the past ones.

Josh has been a big part of this whole experience. He drove me down to my interview. We went to look at the apt with me. He helped me move in. He helps cook and clean. He carries the laundry basket 99% of the time. Oh gosh, oh no, this entry is turning into a Josh entry lol.

My job has been really nice. I finally reached that $50k+ mark. It pays the bills, for sure! But it has also kept me away from what makes me happy and occupied, my family and my non-biological kids (nieces & nephews), so I'm glad Josh makes up for it. I like what I do and I am good at it, but some days I don't find it worth it. It pays enough to live here for now, but not forever...unless I move my whole family down lol.

A nice wage has helped me pay off my macbook pro, new tires for my parents, credit cards, start a Roth IRA and savings. If this didn't happened a year ago, I'd still be paying these still. It's hard to think back of how I budgeted a minimum wage salary under age 20 and now that I make like 3x more, it's hard. All that's changed in my life is rent, car payments, car insurance, and student loans. Does all that really take up 2x of the amount I make?...Well, I guess the shopping increased too, which I've been working better on with all the couponing happening.

I've accomplished a good amount of things the past year. My next goal is just...a house, but I'm so against debt too. Now that I think about it, my biggest goal/priority in life is to pay off student loans. Save while that's happening, so I can down payment a house. Ok, these are my new goals:

1. Payoff student loans
2. Get term life insurance for mom, dad, and me
3. Buy a house

It'd be nice to fit these in:

4. Thailand
5. Associate in IT
6. A couponing club for Hmong mothers! lol

As always, thank you for reading.